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Food, family and memories are as intertwined in the South as if woven on the same thread. At any function we attend, from a party to a wedding to a funeral, we are as likely to talk as much about the food that was there, as we are about why we are gathered. ~Mary Foreman

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Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Saltine crackers, spread with a boiled brown sugar and butter sauce, then topped with chocolate, sometimes called Christmas Crack or Crack because they are downright addictive. Scatter some finely chopped nuts on top if you like!

Saltine Cracker Candy

Chocolate Toffee Bark or Saltine Cracker Candy as it's known, is truly one of my most favorite chocolate treats. Trisha Yearwood's family calls it crack and some people have taken to calling it Christmas Crack around the holidays - but geez, associating those two words together well, that just seems so wrong on so many levels.

Yes, it's true - it's a very addictive cookie treat - and so super easy to throw together, and made out of, all things ... plain ole saltine crackers! Who knew? It's mostly known across the net as Saltine Cracker Candy or sometimes Fool's Toffee, but I decided to rename it Chocolate Toffee Bark because that is the taste it reminds me of, kinda like a Heath bar.

Here's how to make them.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Take a sheet of aluminum foil and put it on a jellyroll pan, turn up the edges of the foil and spray it real good with some non-stick spray. Take a sleeve of regular saltine crackers and spread 'em out on that foil in a single layer. Depending on your brand of saltines, you might need more or less than one sleeve. You can also substitute graham crackers.

Cook up a cup of butter - yes that is 2 sticks - and a cup of brown sugar for a few minutes and pour that evenly on top of the crackers, spread it around with your stirring spoon and stick 'em in a 400 degree F oven to bubble. You can use light or dark - I prefer light.

Break up a bunch of Hershey chocolate bars. You can also substitute chocolate chips, but I love this with the Hershey bars personally and they are super easy to spread - plus I think that they set better than the chocolate chips!

Lay them all over the top of the bubbly cracker toffee yum yum.

As the chocolate begins to melt, take a spatula and spread the chocolate all over the top.

Until you have a big ole tray of gooey chocolate goodness. See how nicely it spreads? Plus those Hershey bars are just downright tasty!

Right now is when you want to add any toppings you like - crushed peanuts, walnuts or pecans are favorites, but coconut, Bits 'O Brickle Toffee Bits and even cooked, and finely crumbled bacon sprinkled on top are all good! I love them just plain myself, but this is a tray I made with half pecan and half pecan, coconut and dried cranberry. The coconut and cranberry are really good over white chocolate for the holidays. Just be sure that you gently press whatever toppings you add into the melted chocolate so that they will set in. Otherwise they'll just fall off.

Let it cool then transfer the tray to the fridge to set.

Carefully cut it into squares.

Enjoy that chocolaty, toffee smeared goodness and marvel that you just created a dessert out of crackers!

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Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a half sheet baking pan with foil, turn up the edges to form a tray and spray foil with non-stick cooking spray.

Arrange saltines with the salty side up in the jellyroll pan. In a saucepan, bring the butter and brown sugar up to a boil and cook for about 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Carefully pour mixture over the crackers and spread it out, evenly coating each cracker. Bake for about 5 minutes until bubbly.

While that is baking, break up the Hershey bars a bit. Remove the crackers and quickly top with the chocolate bars. As they begin to soften and melt, use a spatula to spread the chocolate evenly all across the top. Sprinkle top with chopped nuts or other toppings, if desired, gently pressing the toppings into the melted chocolate so that they set. Be sure that you gently press whatever toppings you add into the melted chocolate so that they will set in. Otherwise they'll just fall off. Set aside to cool in the pan then transfer to the refrigerate to set. Cut into squares. Store in an airtight container for up to a week, or for longer storage, refrigerate or freeze.

Optional Toppings: Sprinkle tops of cracker candy with coconut while the chocolate is still warm. Another good topping is to add Hershey's Bits 'O Brickle Toffee Bits sprinkled over the warm chocolate - you'll probably want to use about 6 ounces. May also top with any finely chopped nut - pecans, walnuts, peanuts, whatever you like. Try these with cooked, crumbled bacon sprinkled on top!

Cook's Note: You may also substitute graham crackers for the saltines. Add a pinch of salt to the caramel. I prefer using the Hershey's bars because they have such a smooth, creamy texture and they spread so fast and so well, plus they seem to set better than the chips. You may also use chocolate chips and stick the tray back into the oven for a minute to soften before spreading, or melt them on the stovetop and then pour over the top.

Gluten Free Variation: Gina from over on the Facebook page offered a great way to make these gluten free. Replace the saltines with rice crackers - she likes using the sesame variety - and you have a gluten free cracker candy. Thanks so much Gina!

Material Disclosure: Unless otherwise noted, you should assume that post links to the providers of goods and services mentioned, establish an affiliate relationship and/or other material connection and that I may be compensated when you purchase from a provider. You are never under any obligation to purchase anything when using my recipes and you should always perform due diligence before buying goods or services from anyone via the Internet or offline.

This looks great. It's kind of like a Paula Deen recipe I made last Christmas that is supposed to taste like KitKat bars. I don't know how many batches of that my family went through, but it was amazing. I'm trying yours next.

I just made these tonight and they are great!! (I was doing a dry-run for our annual family Christmas cookie baking extravaganza.) Super easy! Mine didn't look as pretty as yours at first, but they are a very forgiving cookie, I think! (I used Walmart brand instead of Hershey chocolate bar and they didn't melt as good. Gonna buy the REAL stuff next time!) Thanks so much for a great recipe!

Hey Rachel! They are sure are good aren't they? I'm not sure about the generic bars, but the Hershey's bars are so creamy and they really melt well. Trouble will be staying out of them now LOL!! Enjoy.

It's a BYOB studio painting party - where you bring and sip your favorite beverage while everyone is instructed on a painting project. They're called different things around the country. Our local one is B.Y.O. Brush Studio.

Hmm... never experienced that! Let's see if we can figure this out. Would you tell me what type & brand of chocolate you used? Once it's melted for pouring and set aside to cool, it should go right back to being solid & shouldn't be melting even at room temperature. It should look just like those first & last pictures with the Hershey bars or regular, semi-sweet chocolate chips. I do refrigerate mine just to speed up the setting process.

Does altitude have amything to do with the chocolate not resetting? I know it affected the way caked and pies are made, maybe she lives in a higher altitude than the deep south? Just and idea, love all ur deserts, my kids are loving being my test dummies, thank you.Lisa Metcalf.

Thanks Lisa! That's possible I guess but I really don't know a thing about higher altitude cooking & can't imagine why the chocolate didn't set. Haven't had that experience. I can say that just looking at these again makes me want some! :)

Hi Kathryn. The real thing is made with granulated sugar so you could, though you'd have to make sure it reached the correct temperature for toffee so that it sets correctly - I think somewhere between 280 & 300 degrees F.

This is essentially a shortcut version of toffee and I have never seen it made with granulated sugar. The brown sugar is faster and easier and the crackers make up for the sugar base of the real thing. In other words, if you're going to make it with granulated sugar, I'd just go for the real deal toffee!

I made these tonight....made two batches. I didn't like how the Hershey bars didn't set hard (even in the fridge) and how it softened after I broke them apart. I used Merckens candy melts for the second batch. Set up perfectly, hard and smooth. The recipe itself is great...Very Yummy. Thanks:)

My first batch did not turn out well. When I cut them the chocolate kept separating from the cracker. For the second batch I doubled the butter sugar, and chocolate (ghiradelli semisweet chips). They turned out to have a nice balance of chewy and crunchy. Maybe my pan is bigger than a half sheet? I used about a sleeve and a half of crackers. I just expected bark to be harder.

Hi Gina! Hmmm... I've never had any kind of separation occur before. Your results should be the same as that pictured above because the pictures are of the recipe as it is written here! If I had to guess, I'd say that maybe different fat contents among different quality chocolates and/or baking chips could make a difference, but not sure what could cause that honestly. I've used Hershey bars and basic Nestle chocolate chips for this & I've never had it separate. The brown sugar sauce seeps into the crackers as it bakes and should adhere to them as it cools and hardens and the chocolate should adhere to the brown sugar sauce when it melts.

A half sheet jellyroll pan is about 13" x 18" though I've successfully made a half recipe of this too before (to avoid eating a whole pan!). You may need more or less of one sleeve of crackers, depending on the brand. I know that Premium saltine cracker sleeves, like so many other products, seem to keep shrinking in size every time I buy them!

I've made this recipe before using Hershey's almond bars. Delicious! But I his last time I made them my brown sugar/butter mix never set right. They've been in the fridge for 2hrs now & still never set right. But I also made a boo boo. I pit the pan in the oven w/the chocolate on top already! Oops.I don't know what I was thinking :( Do you think this could have caused the brown sugar/butter mix to not set right?

Oh dear! Yes, I'm afraid that's likely what happened. Once you cook the brown sugar mixture and pour it onto the crackers, the baking process makes it bubble and ooze down into the crackers and stick and then the chocolate melting into the cracker on top of that makes it all stick together. I think putting them on at the same time without that short baking time might make the two too slippery where it won't set together.

Hi there! Thanks for sharing. I just hv a question about the toffee after you pull it out of the oven. My toffee bubbled perfectly per your instructions then I quickly pulled it out of the oven but most of my crackers separated leaving huge gaps between crackers with the toffee swimming around. Do the crackers separate some? It appeared that the bubbling action caused this. But thank you for this I will be making again. Im from Texas and I've read lots of sites claiming true southern food, but yours is the very best by far!!! I often find myself saying when I read your recipes, "Now that's how its done! Or more importantly, "Hell yeah!!!" Thanks!!!

They will float up a bit while that sauce is hot, but they will settle back down. They shouldn't separate much from each other because the crackers should fit the pan with no gaps like in the picture above. Mercy, please don't tell me that they've gone and shrunk the size of saltines now too!

Girl, let me tell you after I put the choc on and cooled/chilled it came together perfectly. Looked almost as great as yours!! It was heavenly!! I think I just jumped the gun and commented before seeing actually all come together. Thank you for your reply, it was wonderful!!! Next up, your buttermilk biscuits. I'm excited!! Again, thank you!!

Oh gosh Camille, I'm so sorry to hear that, but really this is VERY easy to make, I promise, and it's not a recipe that I invented - it's been around being made successfully for many, many years!!

Please scroll up the page and you will see my step by step pictures. Those pictures are made from this very recipe so each of those photos should match what you are doing in each step. If you are having difficulty, then something you're doing isn't matching. Without being there with you I can only offer some possible solutions, should you try it again. It really is easy!

Are you using saltines as pictured, or a different cracker and are they filling the pan edge to edge? Once the brown sugar and butter come to a boil, are you boiling it for 3 minutes? That is important. When you pour the mixture over the crackers, are you taking your time and pouring it slowly enough coat all the crackers? After you do that, then use a spatula to careful spread it out more. If you just dump it on the crackers the likely will float!

When you add the chocolate, do it right when you take the pan from the oven while the brown sugar mixture is hot. That will make the chocolate soften enough to spread easily. You do have to let it sit for a few seconds for that to happen, but you'll see the underside beginning to melt. If it's not melting, return the pan to the oven for a few seconds to being melting the chocolate, then you should be able to spread it. If it clumped up on you, then you may not have evenly distributed the chocolate around and it would definitely be harder to spread. That's one reason I really like using the Hershey bars - they soften and spread beautifully.

I really thought the directions and photos were clear, but I apologize if that wasn't the case.

Nope! They freeze very nicely. Remember a soggy cracker would come from some form of liquid soaking into it. There is no liquid because once these are baked & cooled they harden from the "toffee" seeping down into the crackers. Hope that helps!

I don't ship food (everybody is here!) so I really don't have any tried and true advice for shipping. The crackers should be stored in an airtight container for up to a week, or for longer storage, refrigerate or freeze. I would suggest since it's cold now, freezing them would keep them fresher for shipping, and if you freeze them, as well as for shipping, I'd suggest using some parchment paper between any layers, just to keep them separated as they thaw.

Thanks for taking the time to comment - I love hearing from readers and I read every single comment and try to respond to them right here on the site, so stop back by!

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